Video: Overview of the Color Board

In this movie I want to do an overview of the Color Board so you can better understand its basic operation. And then throughout the rest of this title, we'll use the Color Board almost exclusively to make corrections to footage. The first thing that we need to figure out is how to actually access the Color Board. To do that, we have a few options. First, we can simply select a shot and then use the keyboard shortcut Command+4 to open up the Inspector. You can also click on this button right here to open up the Inspector. Now, in the Color section of the Inspector you'll notice that the shot already has a correction applied to it, Correction #1. This is the default correction that every shot in Final Cut Pro X has, and to access the Color Board for this correction, I'll simply click on this icon right here, and here's the Color Board.

In this course, author Robbie Carman details the principles of color grading in Final Cut Pro X, while explaining how to enhance and stylize footage. The course spells out the differences between primary and secondary corrections and demonstrates fixing problematic footage with contrast corrections and neutralizing color casts. The course also discusses secondary corrections with shape and color masks and explains how to make projects broadcast safe. Additional topics include evaluating clips using the video scopes, and how to create stylized looks.

Overview of the Color Board

In this movie I want to do an overview of the Color Board so you can betterunderstand its basic operation. And then throughout the rest of this title, we'lluse the Color Board almost exclusively to make corrections to footage.The first thing that we need to figure out is how to actually access the Color Board.To do that, we have a few options.First, we can simply select a shot and then use the keyboard shortcut Command+4to open up the Inspector.You can also click on this button right here to open up the Inspector.Now, in the Color section of the Inspector you'll notice that the shot alreadyhas a correction applied to it, Correction #1.This is the default correction that every shot in Final Cut Pro X has, and toaccess the Color Board for this correction, I'll simply click on this icon righthere, and here's the Color Board.

Let me go ahead and use the keyboard shortcut Command+4 to hide the inspector.If you don't want to have to first go through the main level of the Inspector toaccess the Color Board, you don't have to.You can use the keyboard shortcut Command +6 to jump directly to the Color Board.You can also use that same shortcut to close the Color Board.And if you're more of a menu type person, you can simply click here in theEnhancements menu and choose to Show the Color Board.Once the Color Board is active, you'll notice that it's broken down into threetabs or three different panes.Here on the Color pane, we can make color corrections, on the Saturation pane,we can make saturation corrections, and finally, on the Exposure pane, we canmake exposure or contrast corrections to a shot.

Let's start out here on the Exposure pane.We have four controls.First, this one right here allows me to adjust the overall or global exposure orcontrast of this clip.So if I drag up, I can lighten this clip, and if I drag down I can darken the clip.I could of course reset a correction at any time by clicking on this littleReset icon right here.Just keep in mind that the Reset icons are exclusive to the pane that you areon. In other words, they only reset the correction of the active pane.Of course, here on the Exposure pane I have three additional controls.

These allow me to adjust exposure over the three different parts of the tonalrange: shadows or blacks, midtowns, and then whites or highlights.So for example if I wanted to lighten the highlights in this shot I cansimply select the control and drag up lighten the highlights or drag down to darken them.I can of course make simultaneous corrections.So for example, if I selected the midtones here, I can drag up to lighten themidtones, and I can drag down on the blacks or shadows to darken the blacks and the shadows.You don't actually have to drag though;you can simply select one of the controls that you want to adjust, like this.

You know that it's selected when its icon gets larger.Once it's selected, you can then use the up and down arrows to make it darker orto make that particular part of the tonal range brighter.These arrows of course will work on the Global or Master control as well.Let's go ahead and reset that correction.Let me go ahead and switch over to the Saturation pane.The Saturation pane works in a very similar fashion.I have a Global or Master control, where as I drag up, I can saturate the shot; ifI drag down, I can desaturate the shot.I can of course reset this pane by clicking on this Reset icon.

I also have Saturation controls for the three parts of the tonal range--Shadows,Midtones and Highlights.Now let's click over to the Color pane.Now the Color pane in the Color Board in Final Cut Pro X gets all of theattention because it's so different from the traditional color wheels thatFinal Cut Pro 7 used, as well as the color wheels that pretty much every othercolor correction application uses.What Apple basically did was flattened out a color wheel.We have similar controls that we had in the other panes.I have four different controls. A Global control--this one right here. ThenI have controls for the three parts of the tonal range--shadows, midtowns, and highlights.

I can of course grab one of these controls and position it anywhere that I want.Where I position it left and right determines hue, up and down determines thesaturation or intensity of the hue.Let me go ahead and reset that.Of course, I don't have to drag;I can simply select one of these targets.I'll select the Master or Global target right here and then use the up arrows tochange its saturation and the left and right arrows to change the particularselected hue. Let me reset that one more time.Obviously, the big difference here on the Color pane of the Color Board is thatwe have no color wheels.

What you should notice is that the Color pane is broken down into a positivesection up here and a negative session down here.The positive section actually makes a whole lot of sense.So for example, if I drag the Global control or Master control up here into thegreen positive section, you'll notice that the shot becomes, well, green.And the further out that I drag, the more green it will become, or the moresaturated it will become.But what doesn't make a whole lot of sense is what happens when I drag intothe negative section.When I drag down here, the shot actually becomes magenta.

This is kind of confusing and there is a great way to visualize this.Let me go ahead and open up the Videoscopes by pressing Command+7 on the keyboard.Once the Scope window opens up, let me go ahead and click into the Settings menuhere and then down to choose the Vectorsope.Then let me make sure that the shot is active down here in the timeline.Then finally, let me reset this correction.When I drag the Global or Master control up here to the green section, you'llsee that all of the trace kind of pushes over here towards the green target, butif I drag down into negative green, you'll notice that most of the trace goes tothe opposite side of the Vectorscope or towards the magenta target.

A good way to visualize the negative space here, or the negative part of theColor pane of the Color Board, is as a Color Wheel.You're going to the opposite side of the Color Wheel that the hue is showing you.So for example, negative green is actually magenta, negative blue wouldactually be yellow, negative cyan would actually be red, and as we've seen,negative green is magenta.Of course, you can go in between the opposite side targets.Let me go ahead and reset this correction.If you had a shot that was very blue, to neutralize blue in that shot you'd gointo negative blue, thus removing blue from the shot and adding yellow to theshot to neutralize that color cast.

Still though, I think it takes a little bit of practice to understand how thisnew concept of the Color pane on the Color Board actually works.Throughout this title we'll be playing with the Color pane here, but on yourown, do a little more experimentation until you're comfortable with how thecontrols work here.Let me go ahead and reset this.Now, I'm not actually showing you the entire Color Board.Let me come down here to the gray and silver area right here until my cursorbecomes sort of this resize icon, and let me drag down.I've been hiding these controls right here.Well, they're not actually controls;they're just sort of information displays.

As I move one of the controls up here in, say, the Color pane, you notice thatthis control updates to show me some information about where I've positionedthe particular control.Now the reason that I have this hidden throughout the course of this title isbecause you can't actually click in here to make a correction; you can't beprecise and add a numeric value.And because you can't add a numeric value to make a correction, I don't findthis information particularly useful.So throughout most of this title, I'll have this section hidden.Let's go ahead and reset that correction.

Now a few more things I need to tell you about the Color Board.You can quickly navigate between the different panes on the Color Board by usingsome simple keyboard shortcuts.So to activate the Color pane of the Color Board, you can use the keyboardshortcut Ctrl+Command+C, C for color.To activate the Saturation pane use Ctrl+Command+S, and to activate theExposure pane use Ctrl+Command+E. Let's click the back arrow here to go to themain level of the Inspector.As we see, we have our default correction here, but we can add multiplecorrections to a shot, and the way that I do that is by clicking on this plusbutton right here.

When I click on the plus button you can see that I have a new correction, andevery correction has its own Color Board.So for example, if I wanted to go to the Color Board for Correction #2, all Iwould need to do is click on this icon right next to Correction 2 to activatethe Color Board for Correction 2.Let's go back to the main level there.Also, each correction allows me to not only perform a primary color correction,I perform a secondary color correction.Now with these two icons right here, I can have different types ofsecondary color correction.

This first icon allows me to Add a Color Mask. That is one way of isolating theshot for secondary color correction.I can also Add a Shape Mask and this uses a geometric shape to isolate a portionof the clip for color correction.We'll talk more about secondary color corrections later in this title, but afteryou've isolated a portion of the shot, you can simply go to the Color Board tocorrect just that isolated portion.Then finally, when you have multiple corrections on a shot, you can switchbetween them very quickly by using this pull-down menu right here at the topof the Color Board.

You can see I have two Corrections.I'll go back to Correction #1. Hopefully now this tool makes more sense.While certainly different from the traditional color wheel and contrast slidersfound in Final Cut Pro 7 and other applications, the Color Board is equally up tothe task of correcting shots.

There are currently no FAQs about Color Correction in Final Cut Pro X.

Learn by watching, listening, and doing, Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along Premium memberships include access to all exercise files in the library.

Already a member ?

Learn by watching, listening, and doing! Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along. Exercise files are available with all Premium memberships.
Learn more

Upgrade to our Annual Premium Membership today and get even more value from your lynda.com subscription:

“In a way, I feel like you are rooting for me. Like you are really invested in my experience, and want me to get as much out of these courses as possible this is the best place to start on your journey to learning new material.”— Nadine H.

Thanks for signing up.

We’ll send you a confirmation email shortly.

Sign up and receive emails about lynda.com and our online training library:

new course releases

newsletter

general communications

special notices

Here’s our privacy policy with more details about how we handle your information.

Keep up with news, tips, and latest courses with emails from lynda.com.

Sign up and receive emails about lynda.com and our online training library:

new course releases

newsletter

general communications

special notices

Here’s our privacy policy with more details about how we handle your information.